


Puppy crush.

by KiwiLombax15



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Heartbreak, Some angst, Unreciprocated feelings, by which i mean he is a responsible individual not responsible for her being a baby, first crushes, orisa is a baby and zenyatta is responsible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2019-02-27 17:44:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13253373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiwiLombax15/pseuds/KiwiLombax15
Summary: Love is all part of learning.And so is heartbreak.Even omnics have to learn that.





	Puppy crush.

**Author's Note:**

> Contains some headcanons of mine, like Zenyatta having a travel vlog to share his teachings with the internet and my headcanon for new omnics. Pardon the self indulgence
> 
> (Want to see more like this? Support the artist here! https://ko-fi.com/fruitbird)

“You seem distracted, Orisa.”

Efi made a little movement with her hand, a silent request, and Orisa raised her left foreleg to allow her to perform checks, moving with the ponderous grace of a draft horse.

“It's nothing, Efi. This place is just new to me.”

In truth, there was no “nothing” about it. The moment she'd first arrived at Overwatch and she'd seen him, hovering gently and bowing with such elegant grace as he'd greeted her...

Zenyatta...

Just recalling him made her processors go mad, internal temperature rising as she remembered the smooth cadence of his voice. He was poised, careful, calm and smart as anything. She'd looked him up out of curiosity, found his blog where he recorded his travels and thoughts, newspaper interviews and the letters he sometimes wrote for various sites and newspapers, showing a heart overflowing with warmth and love for the world. 

He was...amazing. Within hours, she was besotted with him, creeping along as silently as a massive steel mech could.

Well no more shyness! Emboldened by various help sites, she'd made her move. The date of Valentines day seemed to hold importance in the field of love, and she'd written a card and a poem. She'd struggled over it, the medium new to her, but she felt proud of her efforts, putting it in his mailslot with nervous pride.

Now, the waiting game.

Efi stepped back and cast a glance over the diagnostics on her screen.

“Seems OK, but there's all these weird temperature spikes. Are you feeling alright?”

“I am fine. If I was malfunctioning I would let you know.”

Efi gave her a concerned look.

“Well...OK...”

“Orisa?”

She turned, and her internal processors kicked up a notch or ten. Zenyatta hovered gently at the doorway to the workshop.

“Oh! Hello!”

“May I talk with you a moment?”

Resisting the urge to break into a canter, she eagerly followed him out, waving a quick goodbye to a confused Efi. She followed him through the steel corridors and outside, where a hardy little garden was being planted among the rocky cliffs, looking out over the ocean. Genji was quietly raking patterns into the gravel floor as they approached. With a quiet nod from his teacher, he left them alone.

“Take a seat, please.”

She lowered herself to the ground, checking first for any small wildlife. Zenyatta lowered himself down next to her, taking her valentines from his pockets.

“This is yours, I believe?”

Nervously, she spun her cannon, taking comfort in its click.

“Yes...did you like it? I...wrote the poem myself...”

“It is...very nice. Binary is an interesting medium to work with.” He seemed ill at ease, fiddling with the card. “Orisa, how old are you?”

“I am two months and 3 weeks old exactly today!” she said proudly. “My adapting programming is absorbing and integrating information at a rapid rate!”

Zenyatta sighed, a soft metallic hum.

“Of course...you were custom made, I understand?”

Orisa cocked her head, unsure of where he was going with this.

“Yes. Efi did the coding by herself.”

“Ah. So you would not have had an induction upon gaining consciousness like you would in an Omnium...you see, new omnics are...very naive. They are...clumsy. Fresh. We call them Shinies, due to their factory condition alloys. Even with self improving AI, an omnic can take up to five years to mature fully. And it...the issue of romance...to enter a relationship with one is considered...unethical...”

There was a chilly feeling in her circuitry, an emotion she was not used to. A pit deepening in her with every one of Zenyatta's hesitant words, cold and empty.

“You are...rejecting me? But...I wrote a poem. The internet said it would show my true emotions and-”

His fingers folded and refolded her card seemingly without his input as he looked up to face her for the first time.

“Yes, Orisa. I am sorry. You are simply too young.”

“But...I am much more advanced than most OR-15's! Surely that means something...”

He shook his head, fingers still fiddling with her hard work, the poem she'd spent hours on.

“It is...charming...flattering. A puppy crush is a sweet thing. But as the older party, it is my responsibility to see it does not get out of hand. I am much older than you, Orisa. I am in my twenties. The possibility for potential exploitation of your innocence, even without realizing it...there is a reason it is heavily frowned upon in the omnic community. It is not fair to you. It is not right.” He reached out and placed a gentle hand on her arm. “These feelings you have are not bad feelings, Orisa. Just ones you are not ready to explore yet.”

She looked down at the neat gravel, voice tiny.

“Then why does it hurt so much?” She understood now when Efi was upset or hurt, the strange shaky cry humans did. She wanted to scream, to howl. But also to hide alone somewhere from these brand new emotions, this ache no repair tool could reach.

“Such is life, Orisa. To hurt is natural. There are always storms. What matters is how we weather it. How we learn from it. Part of learning, is learning about hurt. And what new life grows from the ashes of our pain.”

He placed her card back into her hand. His careful folding had transformed it, a paper lotus blooming in her palm.

“Do not think I do not like you as a person, Orisa. You are a bright young omnic with enormous potential. And I know you will move on from this and grow. You are young still, in the springtime of your life. You have time.”

He rose and left her quietly, still holding the paper flower in the garden.


End file.
